Has Nintendo Dropped The Games Media?

MasonicGamer.com: During the 80′s and early 90′s it appeared that Nintendo could do no wrong, a company seemingly invincible with it’s incredible eye for game quality. If there were any chinks in the armour it would come from the company’s “kiddy” reputation, perhaps most famously when the SNES version of Mortal Kombat was censored yet the MegaDrive/Genesis version contained all the violence we’ve come to expect from the series.

The second “blow” to Nintendo’s reputation came in the form of the original PlayStation, up until Sony released their system, gaming was never considered “cool”. Sony made the smart decision to market the PlayStation to a more teen oriented audience meaning it sparked the interest of those who previously turned a blind eye to gaming. It’s around this time that Nintendo’s refusal to go with the flow became more apparent, instead they chose to carve out their own path in the industry as they’ve always had.

"No one wants to admit it but everyone seems to enjoy kicking Nintendo whenever the opportunity presents itself. I’m not talking about the usual trolls online but the actual media themselves, Nintendo have become the “whippin’ boy” of the industry."

They were never being called that much back when they were successful with the Wii, people were actually praising them that they made it to the top. It's only recently with their bad decisions over the Wii U they are being called and for good reasons, they don't seem to know what the hell they are doing most of the time. Hell people knew this when they failed to show off the Wii U properly two years running at E3.

So I don't see how that's made them a "whippin boy" of the industry...if anything Sony are the ones who have become that, even despite all the positive things they've done over the years, people make it out to still be 2006

I mean look at the news recently....Nintendo drop one of the biggest conferences of the year in gaming, despite so much to show off and with the Wii U NEEDING the exposure at the minute

EDIT:

Disagree all you want but it's true. If you can't admit Nintendo have lost the plot as of late then you obviously don't want them to get better and wake the hell up to reality. They will only buck their ideas up if you tell them do instead of sticking your head in the ground, like so many on here do.

They aren't??? Seriously how many doomed Nintendo or wii u articles can you think of in the last 6 months?? Most of those article that u can think of have never nor never come true... Remember all those wii Nintendo doomed articles?? Think about it. Now think of all those Xbox 360 articles on how they are doomed from their horrible and joke like Japanese sales.. Can you think of more than one? Or can you remember the last time you saw a Sony is doomed article. They are btw as company. Their gaming department is okay but the company it self is going down the drain and not doing too good as a whole.. Where are those articles??? Nope none to be found...

Root, haven't we gone through the ropes before? Seriously, someone posted an article about "turning around" the Virtual console literally THE WEEK it came out! I'm not saying the Wii U VC is perfect, but how is that not unreasonable criticism to you? I really question if there can even be a line drawn in your head.

Poprocks I would argue my point to you but with you been the biggest Nintendo fanboy on this site and the fact you live in a massive bubble where Nintendo is always the victim despite the majority of articles this entire gen being negative towards Sony I won't even bother.

Wow. Aren't you mature. Not only did you not acknowledge anything I actually stated in my comment, you also went with the "Wah, wah, you're a fanboy" routine. Maybe next time you should bring an actual argument with you and not your usual hamstrung bullshit.

Oh, and call me a faboy all you want. I've laid out my own criticisms of Nintendo in the past whether you want to acknowledge them or not. At least I am able to see the other side of the argument. The only one between us in a delusional bubble is yourself.

Poprocks I acknowledged what you said but because of the way you are I wasn't going to waste my time going into it. I know what your like so why would I waste my time....hell I'm wasting my time right now even commenting

"Oh, and call me a faboy all you want. I've laid out my own criticisms of Nintendo in the past"

Yeah...sure you have

Is that why most of the time you come to Nintendos rescue, write blogs defending them and even stealth troll Microsoft and Sony articles by bringing up Nintendo in them most of the time.

@Root, You seem to criticize poprock for being a "fanboy". Even though he had shared his criticism towards Nintendo numerous times. If I have to go by what you have to say you are no different than a fundie who is plugging his ears.

"Reply if you want but I'm not going to read it" Yes you are. You are reading it, and in fact keep replying to it. PopRock raised some valid points and you choose to cover your eyes because you don't want to defend your own points. So you take the cowards road and just bash him calling him a blind fanboy.

Why should anyone read anything you have to say since you're constantly bashing Nintendo. If PopRock is a fanboy, how are you any different in that regard? You're just on the polar opposite of the argument. And have no place in criticizing others for having a certain perspective.

Scroll down and read the first comment I left. And look at that! LOL_WUT even praised me for it. You guys are so unbelievably two-faced that you'll lie through your teeth to make me look bad when I've been completely honest and straightforward with the points I've made.

@sidar

Don't bother. These delusional twits can lie and stroke each others junk all they want. I'm really sick of trying to debate with lying morons who couldn't hold a proper debate if their life depended on it.

EDIT: I've even praised the competition with very light criticism on a consistent basis but these chumps can't even be bothered to acknowledge that. They're liars and trolls and it's sad that they rally people who can't see otherwise to their aid because they can't be bothered to stick to their guns and handle these sorts of discussions like adults.

Root is a hack, LOL_WUT is a troll and those giving them agrees need a wake up call.

CNN called PS3 a "sinking ship" when it was having an incredible year. Sites like Gameranx, PlanetXbox360, etc make FUD articles directly attacking Ps3. Sites like Mojodo are run by fanboys that downplay issues on 3DS that they ferociously attack Vita for (example: Attacking Katamari for there being "too many" - about 1 per platform, praising Mario Kart 7 - about 1 per platform).

The only way that Sony is NOT the whipping boy of the industry is in its fans. And it has happy fans because they provide great experiences. Nintendo receives a lot of criticism because no matter what success you achieve, fans won't be happy if you don't please them. And no matter how many times you say that "If you didn't like Wii, you aren't a Nintendo fan!", it won't be true; people have plenty of fond memories of Nintendo consoles past and wish for the same innovation in software that they once saw.

And with Wii U having a miserable time, of course you'll see an untick in criticism. What did you expect? Wii U is selling like crap, Ps4 showed off an amazing pre-E3 show. Where do you think the scales will tip?

But whatever. As usual, this "Wii U IS TOTALLY NOT DOOMZED GUIS GEEZ NINTENDO IS DOING GREAT!" article is filled with all of the tight knit Nintendo fanboys flocking to bubble each other up and Sony haters flocking to convince us of why Sony TOTALLY hasn't been getting slapped around by the media for the last 6 years.

And what about your constant deriding of Sony? Not even on valid levels. Not on things that matter. Not even on the truth.

To that same end, you and others adamantly deny ANY faults or shortcomings on Nintendo's part. According to you, the Wii U's sales are fine(though they've stagnated since shortly after launch). There's nothing wrong with the marketing(though people don't really know what the damn thing is). There are plenty of games to play(though there's certainly a drought right now).

And people with that same mentality are all over this site. Not just siding with Nintendo, but Sony and Microsoft, too.

Still, it's in no way limited to this site, a fact that MANY of the people around here want to deny. According to you- and them- this site, overrun with Sony fanboys, is the only place on the internet where Nintendo faces criticism... which is odd, because with N4G being just an aggregate site, all the articles you complain about have to be from somewhere else.

And Sony wasn't for the PS3 gen? Nintendo may be getting crapped on my obscure sites, but most of the criticism from bigger sites is legitimate. I understand some criticism is just made up, but Nintendo "fans" (I hate to use that word, but it seems to be all people can associate with) themselves need to be honest with themselves and see that some of the criticism is warranted for the progress of Nintendo. I want the Wii U to succeed, and to be a huge success among gamers requites some work from Nintendo. The latest update is a step in the right direction... the Wii U is much faster now, due to some good programming. Having Miiverse on PC is a step in the right direction. Sony got crapped on heavily at the beginning/mid of PS3's life cycle, but look at where it is now... it's an excellent home console. Sony listened to the criticism and made HUGE changes.

People need to lose the idea that the gaming media is some kind-hearted, neutral party that wants everyone to succeed and always covers videogame news fairly while also warning customers of potential problems with certain videogames or consoles. So boo-hoo, the media isn't being nice to Nintendo. Nothing new. The media isn't nice to anyone except a small, select few tech companies that also happen to spend a ton of money on PR and advertisement.

It hasn't been fair since the '90s.

The only people who think the media is fair are either a) fanboys whose console is currently in favor or b) 12-year-olds who don't understand how media coverage operates.

Well, at least you're capable of acknowledging it. I'm just tired of people sugarcoating or disguising Nintendo's current media perception as neutrality.

EDIT: I'd like to add that saying "it is what it is" isn't really a great excuse to me. I do think the media treats Nintendo pretty unfairly. But then expecting a big change for that is like expecting Kotaku to stop writing like a bad tabloid.

A standard blow up defense by fanboys to anyone pointing out the acuteness of Nintendo disparagement/hate on any scale. ie You over exaggerate their position to make them look like extremist(though they actually express no such extremes) and completely refuse to address or even acknowledge their actual point/argument do to you have nothing real counter for it.

"You over exaggerate their position to make them look like extremist(though they actually express no such extremes) and completely refuse to address or even acknowledge their actual point/argument do to you have nothing real counter for it."

This part of your comment speaks to me particularly.

One of my latest blogs was completely about art styles where I pointed out a concern about games possibly all maintaining a dark, gritty and super detailed look as oppose to having a mix of ideas and styles. One of the commenters decided to accuse me of spreading a "Sony hate train" because I cited Killzone and InFamous on PS4 as examples... while praising the detail in their styles and pointing out that I don't think it was good for all games to adopt this in their own art styles.

The sad thing is, I cited Journey, Splosion Man and Portal 2 as some of my favorite games, all with cool art styles in a sea of monotonous first/third person shooters. Yet this moron completely sensationalized my blog into hatred toward a specific entity when it was anything but.

@ lilbroRx Lol, you're calling me a fanboy?! I couldn't give a crap about Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. Oh and BTW, you've just proven the fanboy mindset that i pointed out in my previous comment. You see me criticizing, and all you do is call me a hater. There's no grey area for people like you, is there? To fanboys (all fanboys, not just the Nintendo ones), you either love a company/brand or you hate them. Also, you say i "over exaggerate their position to make them look like extremist", but that's just what you have done, you've over exaggerated criticism to make me look like a hater.

Geoff:So whats new about Arkham city on the wiiU. Reggie:Its not the same. Geoff:But it has the same content Reggie:Its not the same content! Geoff:There is different content? Reggie:It has different content and a different way to play it. Geoff:Enough for fans to replay this game? Reggie:Absolutely! Geoff:60$ is alot of money to replay a game. Reggie:PR speak.

Gaming media is garbage and honestly it would do everyone a favor if Sony and Microsoft switched to a direct information system like Nintendo. Everyone talks about how bad Sony gets it from doom articles, it seems like Sony and Microsoft would only benefit from cutting out the others and giving their release information straight to your fans. I mean for every valid argument to a console issue there is 3 more dumb doom article for all 3 companies. There will always be arguments and biased opinion pieces, but at least then the major media sites won't have a leg to stand on when spewing their bull crap.

Yeah, it would be best if everyone had their own "Direct" presentations. It would cut out the middle man, limit B.S. and we would get the message the companies want to give. Along with good marketing through T.V.(I love video game commercials of any kind as long as they are't boggled down with promotional crap, I'm looking at you Mountain Dew and Doritos)and social media, I think it would streamline the process very well. Less Flo Rida and Lesbian jokes, more Xbox, Playstaion, Nintendo, and Valve.

U speak the truth my man. Its ridiculous how those kind of articles come up when the new systems are not out and the u has not had a chance to breathe. Its quite sickening to see this crap instead of positive stuff. Its like people cannot be involved in gaming without some sort of drama aspect. Real gamers don't bicker about bullshit they just play and enjoy their games. Fanboys ruin gaming, plain and simple. All of these companies respect each other more than people realize. If one innovates all of them benefit and the competition is necessary but the hate is not.

Games have evovled tremendously since the atari 2600 I owned when I was a kid. I worry about the gaming industry as a whole. Nintendo has made many questionable decisions over the years. Even as a fan of nintendo I can't deny that. Nintendo made their first video game in 1978. There an old company and maybe they are out of touch with what gamers want today. I don't know nintendos future and don't claim to either. Were at a point where graphics are almost maxxed out. Unless you want pixar or photo realistic visuals. A lot of the arguements on here are senseless. I admit I even cause my fair share with poor selection of words. Gaming was designed to be relaxing and entertaining, not cause arguements. Being loyal to one brand is fine, but when that loyalty keeps you from experiencing the great software on other systems your only hurting yourself. My definition of a true gamer is someone who enjoys games because of their fun factor, regaurdless of what console its on.

Good. The gaming media has become more and more irrelevant over the course of this gen. Reviewers have become entitled and paid off to provide positive press to certain companies. I like the approach where companies do their own events on their own services, ala Nintendo direct and Xbox live presentations. I'm sick of hearing fanboys spooge over how good battlefield 4 and call of duty 12 look. Gaming has become so detached from what is fun and utterly boring. There's too much talking and not enough gaming. I'm done with these gaming sites they cause too much bickering and bullshit drama. Just play and enjoy your games people! Fuck the press, form your own opinions!

It's important for the non-rich to be informed about a game in detail from non-publisher/devs of said game. Full stop.

However, as all things with power to inform....it's become corrupt and semi-meaningless.

Also, the war if you will, between MS & Sony is good for both of them. It keeps them in our discussions and creates brand loyalty. I mean just look at things with pure logic and MS looks incredibly greedy and anti-consumer. I won't rehash that. It's pointless.

Same can be said about Ninny. They have essentially forced themselves into a place where they failed on multiple fronts. Fans defend....but reality isn't defensible.

-launching 1st for the upcoming gen....but not securing multiple must haves for launch is ludicrous! -going the gimmick route when the last console gimmick proved it hadn't the longevity or the ability to convince 3rd party devs to back your system! -not following the crumbs that is online gaming! Ninny needs a robust online that rivals the other two. But Iwata flat out said that Ninny believes that ship has sailed - as the other two have had a 7yr jump on Nintendo. Who's fault is that?!?!

Anyways, I could go on and on. I have a lot of nostalgia for Ninny. I think that they can create amazing sequels. But if I'm buying 30+ games a year....I couldn't find 50 games I'd want to play on Ninny home consoles if I combined game cube, Wii and WiiU.

And just wait until the other two are on shelves with campaigns that will smother Ninny's new super tactic! (Preaching to the converted via Directs)

When it comes to great classic first party ips nintendo can deliver some nice quality games. With that being said its sad that in order for me to be able to play upcoming titles im really looking forward too ill have to buy either ps4 or 720. I doubt nintendo will get gta5,witcher3,dragon age3,etc.... So i do see peoples side who complain about missing alota great 3rd party titles. Ive always said i dont like senseless nintendo hate, but they have brought some of this on themselves. My biggest gripe is their hardware. Im not a graphics whore by any means. But when they deliver weak hardware it really hurts their consumers because they have limited variety beyond nintendos own ips. You shouldnt have to shell out 350 for wii u then turn around and spend anothet 400 to 500 for a ps4to play the multi plats that skip wii u because of inferior hardware. Even as a nintendo fan i have my own complaints as well.